Faith Sindick | Reporter
The Swedish multibillion pound company H&M has apologised over advert that has put the world in disarray. The advert features an 8-year-old black boy wearing a jumper saying, ‘coolest monkey in the jungle’ with some claiming that the jumper is insensitive and racist. Others say that it’s a child wearing a normal kid’s jumper. Consequently, the last week has seen the public having to decide if this is an example of companies promoting racist attitudes towards the black minority or just a child model wearing harmless kid’s jumper.
With racism being a rather controversial subject these days, it’s no wonder that the advert is gaining so much publicity. People are outraged, saying that the jumper is comparing the little boy to a monkey – the way I see it, it’s no wonder that people are angry and disgusted at this advert with it since being removed and H&M releasing an official apology.
Famous 27-year-old singer ‘The Weeknd’, who previously had a men’s clothing line with H&M, stated that he was “deeply offended” by the advert and has since cut all ties with the brand. In addition, rapper ‘G-Easy’ has left H&M, stating that “This is truly sad and disturbing”.
Even Labour MP Kate Osamor tweeted:
https://twitter.com/KateOsamor/status/950329798185844736
It is clear that the public soon decided to actions into their own hands: Saturday saw angry EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) protesters destroying six shops in the Gauteng area. A video released on social media shows angry protesters pushing racks of clothing to the floor. Although police officers are controlling the situation, no official arrests have been made thus far.
This is not the first time that companies have come under fire for the casual racism. 2017 saw the skincare brand Dove receiving serious backlash for their advert in which a black woman wearing a brown top removed it, revealing a white woman wearing a white top with people commenting saying it was “Disgusting” and “This was a bad deliverance of the message that all can use the soap”. Again, Dove released an apology and removed the ad.
Although putting a young black boy in a jumper with a monkey slogan on it was ultimately a bad idea which had not been well considered, the question still stands – if this jumper was modelled by another child from any other ethnic background would there be such an uproar? The answer is simple, no. With jumpers with slogans like ‘cheeky monkey’ and monkey onesies being a trend in recent years, it appeared to me that nobody seemed to have any problems with it. But with further analysis, one could propose the idea that those who find this advert racist are racists themselves as it is they who are connecting the monkey with the boy and therefore calling him a monkey which is what started the controversy. Loose Women star Saira Khan stated that she would buy the jumper for her bi-racial son, stating that “I looked at that and I saw a little kid in a T-shirt”. Even the mother of the child model, Terry Mango, said people should simply “get over it”. With situations like this we must ask ourselves, are we trying to find the negatives in a seemingly harmless situation.
